Google Melon: Machinima Artist Transforms Earth Into a Fruit

Video artist Marco Cadioli is no stranger to making shorts with images available from Google Earth, and for this summer he has turned our planet into a giant melon, as seen in the video above (be sure to have your speakers on).

[partner id=”wireduk”]Cadioli started making videos last year, displacing the familiar scenes of major cities and town planning data within the blank landscapes of virtual imaging using machinima techniques.

So how do you get from that to melon art? “I like watermelons, their shape, the fact that they’re red with black dots,” the Italian artist explains to Wired.co.uk. “They’ve got a good design: green, white and red like the Italian flag. They make me happy.”

The melon also reminded Cadioli of other cultural cosmic interpreters: “I thought of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The contrast of its epic atmosphere added a sense of humor to my video.”

While the Google Melon may seem a bit of a departure from the slightly darker notions Cadioli explores in his other films, the mechanics and motivations are similar: “I’m interested in fixing the birth of virtual worlds at their beginning, ever since my first project of internet photography. It’s awesome to change the globe with a click, a sense of power and fear. I feel like I am playing God with the Earth. While looking for an aesthetic solution, I’m exploring technology to find something else aside from its main purpose.”

When questioned about whether he would consider food aside from spherical fruit to transform the planet with, Cadioli said: “This is an ongoing project. Now I am playing with fruit but I’m sure there will be other variations on the theme.”

Perhaps Earth could be orbited by a pomegranate.

You can check out the tasty screenshots from and variations on Cadioli’s Google Melon in Wired UK’s gallery.